TGI Fridays today announced Gold Coast Holdings Restaurants has purchased 49 Fridays restaurants in the Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey and upstate New York areas. With the completion of the Gold Coast transaction, Fridays will have refranchised almost 175 restaurants nearly six months earlier than originally planned, making 90 percent of its U.S. restaurants now owned and operated by franchisees.

“When we launched our refranchising initiative in September 2014, we expected it to take about 18-months to get to this point in the process,” said Ricky Richardson, president and chief operating officer of TGI Fridays USA. “We are proud of this accomplishment due to the strong level of interest we received from high-quality existing and new partners, validating the excitement and opportunity for growth we all believe exists for the Fridays brand.”

Refranchising the majority of restaurants accelerates Fridays successful re-imaging program and helps grow the brand’s presence, with each sale including agreements to contemporize the restaurants and develop additional locations. As part of Gold Coast’s acquisition, they have committed to growing Fridays presence in their markets by more than 20 restaurants and will also be re-imaging the current restaurants to the contemporized Fridays look over the next few years.

“We are very excited about our new partnership with TGI Fridays,” said Gold Coast Holdings CEO Alfonso Fernandez. “The Fridays brand has a rich heritage, focused on innovation and poised for growth. We look forward to being part of this iconic brand.”

“Over the last year, we’ve looked for strong franchise partners, like Gold Coast, who have a proven track record and a passion for delivering a great guest experience by investing in their people and growing their business,” said Richardson. “We’re thrilled to bring Gold Coast into the Fridays family.”

In 1965, Fridays opened its first location in New York City. Today, there are over 900 restaurants in 60 countries which offer high quality, authentic American food and legendary drinks, served with genuine personal service. Bringing people together to socialize and celebrate the freeing and liberating spirit of “Friday” is the concept’s founding premise, from which the brand promise “In Here, It’s Always Friday®” was born. For more information, visit www.fridays.com.

Based in Florida, Gold Coast has an established background in managing operational businesses and overseeing real estate and development. Most notably, Gold Coast Holdings owned and operated Gold Coast Beverage for more than 20 years, until its record-setting sale in January 2015.